The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) convert analog signals into digital signals. A resolution of an ADC is typically measured in terms of a number of bits output by the ADC. Different applications require ADCs of different resolutions. As the resolution of an ADC increases, the size and power consumption of the ADC increases.
Several factors can cause errors in ADC's. For example, variations in processes used to manufacture components of an ADC can cause errors in the ADC. Most ADC's employ additional circuitry to correct the errors. The additional circuitry further increases the size and power consumption of the ADC's.
Most ADC's are designed for worst-case conditions (e.g., worst-case signal-to-noise ratios, worst-case process variations, and so on). Often the conditions may be better than worst-case conditions. The ADC's, however, cannot temporarily disable the additional circuitry that corrects errors in worst-case conditions. Accordingly, the additional circuitry continues to consume power.
Also, when conditions are better than the worst-case conditions, a lower resolution can provide acceptable results. ADC's designed for a particular resolution, however, cannot decrease the resolution when conditions are better than worst-case conditions, which leads to wasteful power consumption.